


Hang On in There

by TheWorldIsYou13



Category: Rescue: Special Ops, Take That (Band)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-06 13:17:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5418494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWorldIsYou13/pseuds/TheWorldIsYou13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: The Take That lads visit Australia for the first time in years on a promo tour for their up and coming record. However, during an outside gig to a large crowd, a major accident occurs. Is this accident enough to change two people’s lives forever or will things, eventually, get better?<br/>Disclaimer: I own nothing and none of what you are about to read is meant in offence and, obviously, this did not happen.</p><p>Work in Progress - on my list of fics I want to finish</p><p>Oh, and knowledge of either fandom is not needed</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, so this is a story that my sister and I started a couple of years back. It's set in 2014 and features all five members of TT (cos it was written before we knew there were only three of them carrying on).
> 
> I hope you guys like it and, if you don't know either fandom, that's not a problem. But you should watch Rescue and listen to TT because both are great!
> 
> Anyway, enjoy! And please let me know what you think! It means a lot :)

“Right, here we go, three beers and two diet cokes. Sorry it took so long, the barman couldn’t be any slower.” Jason said as he put the tray of drinks down in the middle of the table the five of them were sitting at in the bar not far from the studio they were working in.

“Cheers Jay,” Robbie said as he grabbed his diet coke from the tray and taking a sip before putting the glass down.

“So, what did I miss while the barman took an eternity to pour five drinks?” Jason asked as he sat down in his seat next to Howard.

“Not much,” Gary said. “We were just talking about the promo tour, but decided to wait until you returned until we carried on. Didn’t realise you were going to take so long.”

“Blame the barman.” Jason smiled. “Anyway, what about the promo tour?”

“Well, we were discussing locations and that.” Howard told him. “Mark said that he was talking to Jonathan earlier about it.” Howard nodded over at Mark, next to Robbie, as he took a sip of his drink.

“Yeah, he said something about if we would like to go over to Australia and do something there for a week or so.” Mark explained.

“Australia?” Gary said. It was clear already that he wasn’t that keen on the idea of going that far out of Europe. Not that anyone could blame him, really. Gary was easily got homesick if he was away from his family for too long. It was something that had become apparent when the four of them had started touring again eight years ago.

“It’s only for a week Gary,” Mark told him, understanding why his friend didn’t seem to be keen on the idea.

“I know, but it’s so far away.”

“He’s got a point, Mark.” Howard said. “It’s a long journey and I think I’ve just about forgotten what it’s like to be on a plane with Rob for a whole day.” Robbie gave him a stern look before kicking him under the table.

“Shut up, Howard.” Robbie said. “I was young and easily bored.” Robbie told him as he took another sip from his drink.

“Yet, at the age of forty, nothing’s changed.” Mark grinned at him before yelping when Robbie gave him a quick sideways kick under the table. Everyone else just laughed.

Once the five of them had calmed down from that outburst, Jason took a sip of his drink before breaking the silence.

“I’m not sure Australia’s a good idea, Mark.” He told him, trying not to notice the way Mark’s eyes filled with disappointment. “We haven’t been there in years and the last single we had there was ‘Shine’.”

“I know, but we didn’t get to go last time we did a promo tour and it’d be nice to go back now that Rob’s back.” Mark said. He wasn’t going to give up just yet on getting the guys to agree with him on this.

“I’ve been back four years and you only come up with this now?” Robbie said looking across at Mark.

“Well, like you guys said, it’s been a long time since we went there and it didn’t cross my mind – or Jonathan’s for that matter – back then. And, technically, we had that two year break, so you’ve only been back for two years.” Mark told him.

“All right, fair enough, but still.” Robbie said.

“Come on guys, please. Its one week, a few interviews and a few performances. It’s not like we haven’t done anything like that before.” Mark said with a pleading tone to his voice and a pleading look in his eyes.

“It’s just a long way away and a little out of our market.” Gary told him.

“And? When did that stop us back then?”                                                                                                  

“We’re not kids anymore, Marky. We know where we stand and we should stick to it.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to go somewhere different every once in a while.” It was apparent that Mark wasn’t going to give up on this any time soon, no matter how much the other guys told him that they weren’t too keen on the idea of going back to Australia.

No-one said anything for a while and the five of them just sat around their, drinking their drinks, thinking about what it would be like to go back there and do a bit of promo work. Maybe Mark was right, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to go somewhere different every once in a while. After all, it was only one country, but it was the fact that it was so far away that was putting them off more than anything else.

Eventually, after a few minutes of silence, it was Robbie who turned to look at Mark, breaking the silence first.

“You’ve got a point, I suppose.” He said. Mark looked at him and smiled, happy that someone was finally starting to agree with him on this.

“You want to come?” He asked.

“It wouldn’t hurt I guess.” Mark grinned at him before giving him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek before pulling away and looking at the others.

“Guys?” Mark could see his friends give it some thought before each of them answered in turn. When they all, finally, agreed to come, Mark let out the breath he didn’t realise he had been holding.

...

A month later, the five of them were packing for their trip to Australia. It was nearly time for the Christmas period by the time the time came for them to head off into the sun. It was probably safe to say that Mark was the only one who was really looking forward to promoting their record here, but none of the others were going to put a damper on his mood and promised themselves that they would try and enjoy this. After all, they had agreed to do this. It wasn’t as if Mark had forced them to come, though, in all honestly, you could put it like that. The look he had given them was that same look that none of them could say no to, no matter how much they told themselves to.

Robbie sat in the bedroom he shared with Mark, watching as his partner tried to pack his suitcase as tightly as he could. Mark hadn’t noticed him staring at him yet and Robbie was finding it amusing as he watched Mark tried to zip up his suitcase, his tongue pocking out ever so slightly as he concentrated.

Shaking his head with a grin on his face, Robbie stood up and went over to help Mark. Eventually, the two of them got the case closed and lifted it onto the floor next to Robbie’s.

“Come on; let’s put these down stairs by the door so they’re ready to go when we leave in the morning.” Robbie said, grabbing his case and pulling the handle up. “What time are we leaving again?”

“I think we have to be at the airport at two in the morning so we can catch the plane at four.” Mark said, trying to remember what Jonathan had told them.

“Brilliant,” Robbie said sarcastically.

“So, I think we’d better go to bed now so we can actually sleep before having to get up and get ready.” Mark told him as they dragged their cases down the stairs.

Robbie looked at his watch before looking up at Mark. “It’s six o’clock.”

“I know, but we’re gonna have to start getting ready in about six hours so we can leave and get to the air port on time.” Mark told him, pushing the handle back down on his suitcase. “Besides, I’m tired and could do with a nap.”  

“All right, I’ll be up in a minute. I’m just gonna grab a sandwich or something. You want anything?” Robbie asked.

“Sandwich please.” Mark said before running up the stairs and into their room. Robbie watched him go before making his way into the kitchen to make himself and Mark a quick sandwich.

...

Mark quickly stripped of his clothes before throwing on his pyjamas and sliding underneath the duvet on his side of the bed. He sighed contently before pulling up the duvet cover, curling up more before closing his eyes and feeling himself falling asleep.

He didn’t realise he had fallen asleep until he was shaken awake by Robbie, who was now sitting on his side of the bed, under the covers, holding a plate that held the sandwich the sandwich he had made for him.

Mark blinked a couple of times before smiling at Robbie and sitting up on the bed next to Robbie before taking the plate off him.

“Thanks,” Mark said before yawning. “Where’s yours?” He asked, noticing that Robbie didn’t appear to have made anything for himself like he said he was going to.

“I ate mine. Thought I’d let you sleep for a bit before I gave you yours.” He said. “That and I couldn’t help but stare at you. You’re so cute when you’re sleep, you know that right?”

“I try,” Mark grinned, kissing Robbie before taking a bite out of his sandwich. Robbie just shook his head and ruffled Mark’s hair.

...

Surprisingly to him, Robbie was awake first. He opened his eyes and found Mark, still fast asleep, his head resting on his chest with his arm wrapped tightly around Robbie’s waist. Robbie smiled and rubbed circles on Mark’s back. Mark smiled in his sleep and shifted slightly, but didn’t awake.

Looking across at the clock, Robbie found that it was nearly midnight and so decided to leave Mark sleeping for a few minutes more. Besides, it was likely that Mark would wake up naturally any moment anyway.

He was right and not two minutes later, Mark started to stir. As he opened his eyes, he looked up at Robbie and gave him a small smile before yawning and stretching slightly.

“Is it time to get up?” He asked.

“’Fraid so, Marky.” Robbie tod him. “Don’t worry, though, I’ll let you sleep on the plane.”

“What about the airport?” Mark asked.

“I’ll need someone to keep me sane in the mass of people.” Mark just laughed.

“All right then, let’s get ready.” The two of them jumped out of bed before taking it in turns to use the bathroom. Once they were both ready, they loaded their suitcases into the boot of the car before Mark started the vehicle and drove the two of them all the way down to Heathrow.

...

They met up by the airport entrance an hour or so later. It was now approaching two o’clock and it was safe to say that none of them were really in favour of the early start.

Out of the five of them, Howard and Jason were the last to arrive. As they walked up to the entrance, their suitcases dragging behind them, the others could see a look of annoyance on both men’s faces. As they approached, everyone else realised that the look that covered their faces was directed at Mark, who just smiled one of his innocent smiles at them before Howard spoke.

“You’re evil, you know that, Mark?” Howard said as they stopped with their cases.

“I’ve been telling him the same thing for the past twenty-four years.” Robbie said. Mark looked up at him, his eyes narrow, but Robbie just smiled and ruffled his hair.

“Why did you make us do this?” Jason asked him as he rubbed his eyes, looking like he was trying not to fall asleep standing up.

“I told you, it’s good to do something different every once in a while.” Mark said, not fazed by the looks his friends were giving him.

“I tell you what, this is the last time we’re going this far out of the UK.” Gary said, pulling up the handle on his suitcase. “Should we get going, then?”

“Might as well, we do have a plane to catch.” Robbie said, grabbing his suitcase and taking Mark’s hand in his own.

As the five of them entered the airport, suitcases in hand, they could hear the sound of planes leaving and coming in; the sounds of people rushing by trying to catch the right planes; the sounds of children crying because they don’t want to go or were tired and the sounds of some people faintly snoring as they tried to catch up on sleep before having to board their flight. It was just what you would expect from a major airport in the middle of the night.

“Jonathan said he’s going to meet us at the hotel when we arrive.” Mark told them as they made it into the lounge, awaiting their flight to be called. “He told me his flight was yesterday and that he’s already in the country.”

“Does he know what we’re doing over there yet?” Gary asked.

“He said he’s finalising everything and will tell us when we’ve arrived and recovered from jetlag.” Mark explained.

There was a silence between them for a while before Robbie yawned and lay down so his head was resting on Mark’s lap.

“Wake me up when the flight’s called.” He said, yawning again before closing his eyes.

“Oh, so is this why you didn’t want me to fall asleep in the airport? So you can use my lap as a pillow?” Mark asked, one eyebrow raised.

“Yep,” Robbie said, popping the ‘p’ with a small smile on his face. You’re more comfortable than a chair in an airport.”

“Cheers, I think that’s a compliment.” Mark said. Robbie just nodded and Mark knew that it was only a matter of seconds before Robbie would be fast asleep.

...

It was ages before their flight was finally called, but at quarter to four, the five of them were finally boarding their plane. There weren’t as many people on it as they would’ve first thought, but that was almost better in a way. Less people meant the plane might be quieter meaning that they could actually attempt to catch up on some of the sleep they had lost during the night.

As they took their seats and buckled up, Mark could already feel himself drift off. Thankfully, he was the one sitting by the window and so rested his head on the wall of the plane and closed his eyes.

Next to him, Robbie sat looking across at Mark, already asleep against the wall of the plane. He smiled at him before putting a hand on Mark’s shoulder and looking at him closely. Yep, he was definitely already gone. Grinning, Robbie turned round to look at the other three behind him.

“Mark’s gone already.” He said.

“He asleep?” Gary asked.

“Yeah,”

“By the looks of things, I don’t think Howard and Jason are far off either.” Gary said looking at the two of them next to him, who smiled tired smiles back.

“We’ll last the next half hour or so.” Howard said whilst yawning.

“I’ll be surprised if you make the next five minutes.” Gary laughed. Jason just groaned in response, apparently already half asleep. “See?” Gary asked, looking back at Robbie who just grinned.

“Looks like we’re on our own, Gaz.” Robbie laughed.

“Tell me about it.” He said. “One of them will wake up in a bit, I suspect.”

“True, what should you and I do while these three sleep, then?” Robbie asked.

“Sleep?” Gary suggested. “I think these three have the best idea.”

“Yep, sleeping is very good.” Jason mumbled from where he sat next to Howard by the window, his head no resting on his friend’s shoulder.

“Says the insomniac.” Robbie told him. Gary just laughed. “All right, I’ll try and sleep.” Robbie turned back around and looked at Mark, still fast asleep next to him.

Without meaning to, Robbie yawned before leaning on Mark, resting his head on his shoulder and closed his eyes.

...

By the time they arrived in Sydney, it was one in the morning the next day. Thankfully, the airport wasn’t that manic and they managed to get out of the building and into the taxi without too much hassle.

As they were driven to the hotel, Jason looked out of the window at the bright lights that covered the city in the dark. Out of all five of them, he was the most awake and so took the time to take a look at the surroundings they were in. It had been ages since they last came here, but the city never seemed to change. It was still as magnificent as it had been the last time they came here together and, suddenly, Jason was happy that he had agreed to come. If he hadn’t, he would never have got to be reminded of the beauty of the place.

In the back of the seven-seater taxi, Gary was on his phone, sending a text to Dawn and the kids; Howard was on twitter, tweeting a few of the pictures he had taken on the plane while most of them had been asleep; Robbie was listening to his IPod, his head gently moving in time to the beat of the music, making Jason wonder what he was listening to and Mark was sitting silently with his head resting on Robbie’s shoulder. From the way he looked, Jason knew he wasn’t far off falling asleep and the way Robbie’s arm was wrapped around his shoulders told him that Robbie knew it too.

Eventually, they made it to the hotel. The lights shone bright against the blackness of the sky. There were flags hanging from the outside of the hotel and, as the five of them stepped out into the warm night air, the smell of sea water filled their noses.

Saying thank you to the taxi driver, they grabbed their suitcases from the boot and walked up to the hotel. Unlike many other hotels they had been to in the past (and indeed the present) there were no fans camping out in the night in sleeping bags and makeshift beds. Now, either Jonathan had managed to get them here completely unnoticed or they were less well-known over here than they originally thought they were. Either way, they were thankful they managed to get up to their rooms without any hassle or fans wanting autographs.

“God, I’m so tired.” Mark groaned as he and Robbie entered their room on the third floor of the hotel. “And if I have to climb that many stairs again at this time in the morning, I will die.” He said, leaving his suitcase by the bed and collapsing on the mattress.

“I did tell you there was a lift, but you didn’t listen.” Robbie said, moving both suitcases towards the wardrobe by the wall.

“Mmm,” Was all Mark said as he buried his face into one of the pillows.

“You going to sleep, then?” Robbie asked, sitting on the bed next to Mark. Mark just nodded against the pillows. “All right then,” Robbie bent down and kissed Mark’s hair. He knew Mark was asleep seconds later and so breathed a small laugh and untied his shoes, putting them on the floor beside the bed and pulling the thin duvet cover up over Mark. In his sleep, Mark rolled over and hugged the duvet to himself.

A few minutes later, Robbie was ready for bed and climbed in under the duvet next to Mark, rolling over onto his side, facing his partner. He watched Mark sleep for a while, watching as a small smile made its way onto the smaller man’s face and Robbie stroked his hair. Soon enough, Robbie closed his eyes and fell asleep himself, holding Mark to him as he slept.

If only they had realised then just how much of an impact this trip was going to have on the five of them...


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I mentioned at the start, but this was inspired by the episode of Rescue: Special Ops which may sister said was called 'Rockstars' (You'd have to ask her, she's the Rescue fan). Anyway, I don't own Rescue and this is pretty much the only thing that resembles anything within the actual series. 
> 
> Also, this was EXTREMELY hard to write - especially when it gets down to the end. I'm not used to writing big disaster scenes with lots going on, so please bear with me. I hope it's alright.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy and please let me know what you think at the end :D

Late the next morning, Jonathan met the five of them down in the restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel. As the band walked through the doors Jonathan waved them over with a friendly smile on his face. The five of them smiled back and walked over to the table where he was sat. Each of them then gave their manager – their friend – a tight hug to say hello before sitting around the table with him.

“How was the journey then, guys?” Jonathan asked. “Recovered from the jet-lag yet?”

“Just about,” Howard answered on behalf of the five of them. “I think we’ve all just about recovered from sitting on a plane for that amount of time and the lack of sleep that came with it.”

“It’s not the nicest of travels, is it?” Jonathan sympathised.

“Not when you have to sit next to Rob for over twenty hours.” Mark said grinning across at Robbie who gave him a look of death.

“Not really,” Gary answered choosing wisely to ignore the looks that passed between Mark and Robbie. “Though, at least we know who we can blame for this.” He said eying both Jonathan and Mark in turn.

“Why do people keep giving me looks of death?” Mark asked innocently. “If looks could kill guys...”

“You’d be dead ten times over?” Robbie asked.

“Yes,”

Jonathan waited for the five of them to finish their breakfasts before explaining to them what they would be doing while they were out here ‘down under’.

“I suppose you’re gonna wanna know what you’re doing.” Jonathan smiled.

“Would be of some use, mate.” Robbie said.

“Well, at the end of the week, there’s a Christmas charity concert going on and there’s a space near the end if you guys want it. I have to call the producers today, mind, so you’re going to have to hurry up and decide what you want to do.” Jonathan explained. He then watched as the five of them looked at each other. Moments later it was Jason who spoke for the group.

“All right,” He said. “Might be a good way of promoting the new stuff and, after all, how could we say no to a charity concert with Mr. OBE over here?” Jason smiled as he pointed to Gary.

“Great,” Jonathan smiled. “I’ll call the producers and let you know the times as soon as I can so you can get a list together. There’s also a rehearsal the morning before, but I’ll let you know the times of that as well when I can.”

“Cheers Jonathan.” Gary smiled as the six of them stood up and began to start dealing with, now, empty plates.

“Sorry it’s a bit last minute.” Jonathan apologised as they made their ways to their rooms.

“’S all right,” Mark said with his famous smile. “We still doing those interviews you told us about a couple of weeks ago?” He asked.

“Yeah, the first one’s at lunch time so you guys better get ready so we can get to the studio.” Jonathan told them.

“All right then, we’ll see you back out here in about half an hour then.” Howard said as they started to climb the stairs.

The five of them left Jonathan and made their ways to their rooms. As they reached a quarter of the way up the first flight of stairs, Mark suddenly stopped with a look of realisation in his eyes.

“Wait, I’ve just remembered,” he said. “There’s a lift.”

He then made his way back down the stairs he had just climbed and walked to the set of lifts that he hadn’t seen when they had first arrived here.

As they watched, the other four stood on the stairs before shaking their heads at Mark as he walked into one of the lifts, the metal door closing behind him.

“Do we want to know?” Howard turned to Robbie before the four of them continued their trek up the flights of stairs.

“He didn’t realise there was a lift when we arrived yesterday, despite what I told him, and landed up lugging his luggage up the stairs.” Robbie explained.

“Right,” Gary said slowly. “How did he not realise?”

“I dunno, he’s Mark, that’s why.” Robbie said.

The others just nodded and they continued their trek in silence.

...

The interviews weren’t all exciting it had to be said. Each interviewer asked, basically, the same questions and their answers were always the same:

“What brought you here back to Australia after so long?”  
_Our manager Jonathan and Mark.  
Yep, it was all me (and Jonathan)._

“What’s it like being here this close to the holiday season?”  
_Bloody hot.  
A bit home sickening. I do really miss my family at the moment._

“How was the journey from England?”  
_Long._

“Can you give us a clue to what your new record sounds like?”  
_Bloody brilliant.  
What the little guy said._

“How easy was it to write this album?”  
_A lot easier than last time. No-one buggered off or anything.  
Hey, we had our reasons._

“Are there plans to do a tour?”  
_Yeah, next year we’re hoping to tour._  
That’s dependent on whether or not people will want to come.  
They’re missing out if they don’t.

“Any plans to tour over here?”  
_It’s unlikely cos of the size of our tours. But we’re doing a mini-set at the charity gig on Friday._  
Maybe one day, it’ll be nice to come here and tour.  
Better not leave it too long – I’m forty-six!

“OK, so here are some questions from your Aussie fans: Although you’re all friends, who’s the most annoying at times?”  
_Mark._  
Hey, thanks Rob!  
Nah, I’m kidding. Probably me.

“Who snores the loudest?”  
_Rob._  
Hey!  
Payback. 

“Mark and Rob, when are the two of you getting married? There are rumours all over the place.”  
_*choke* Err..._

“If you were an onlooker from space, who would you say was better at Cricket? England or Australia?”  
_England.  
It’s the only sport we’re good at._

By the time all the interviews were over, they must have offended at least half the population of Australia with the answer to that last question. And where had these rumours about Robbie and Mark getting married come from? Twitter, that was probably where. Bloody internet rumours. Someone should keep an eye on this stuff!

...

Friday morning, the five of them were up and in their taxi by ten o’clock, working on the finishing touches to their set. They had been given a half an hour time slot to fill and had managed to come up with a set list that covered the whole of their time as a band.

As Robbie looked at the set he wondered what it was he would be doing while they were doing their whole ‘TT4’ stuff.

“Hey, guys, what am I supposed to do while you sing ‘Patience’ and ‘Shine’?” He asked.

“Wait for us to finish before you come on?” Howard suggested. “Hence why we put them first, so you weren’t coming and going.”

“What, like in real life?” Mark asked only earning himself a flick on the ear from Robbie.

“Oh, so a bit like the ‘Progress’ tour?”

“Yeah, only this time, we’re kinda skipping over your solo stuff.”

“Right,”

“Hey, for this tour, me and Gaz should do some of our solo stuff!” Mark said, somewhat, excitedly.

“No wait, I’ve a better idea,” Gary said with fake enthusiasm. “Mark should do some of his solo stuff.”

“Not keen on the idea, I take it then, Gaz.” Jason said.

“Not really,”

“Oh, come on, it’ll be twenty-five years of us being together so we should do a bit of everything.” Mark said. “Rob can do stuff like ‘Angels’ and ‘Candy’, you can do stuff like ‘Love Won’t Wait’ and ‘Let Me Go’ and I can do stuff like ‘Stars’ and ‘Clementine’—“

“’Clementi-e-ine,” Robbie put in.

“And Howard can do some of his DJ-ing,” Mark carried on ignoring Robbie. “And Jason can...” Mark suddenly trailed off, looking at Jason for help on what he could do.

“Jason can do ‘Wooden Boat’.” Howard put in, putting an arm around his friend.

“Yeah!” Mark said with gleeful excitement, almost coming off the seat he was sitting on.

“Hey Mark,” Robbie said once Mark was sat down once more.

“Yeah?”

“How much sugar did you put in your tea this morning?” He asked. Mark just scowled at him before whacking the top of his arm, hard, making the other three laugh at the two of them.

…

With the set list finally decided upon, the day of the gig came around quickly. To say things were chaotic the understatement of the century; they hadn’t had all that much time in order to rehearse their set and were all starting to feel the pressure of what they had agreed to.

Thankfully, they had managed to squeeze in some time in order to do a sound check and that had gone smoothly, much to everyone’s relief. If things were starting to fall into place now then it took some of the pressure off for later. As it was a small stage and outdoors, they didn’t have too much going on, on the stage. For them, it was a pretty simple stage set; mainly because if they had tried to fit anything else on the stage along with the compulsory piano, it would have been extremely unlikely that they would have gotten all five of them on the stage with room to move.

Early evening came and the gig was about to start. There were a string of artists on before them and so the five of them sat in their dressing room tent, talking and laughing, waiting for their turn to go on. There was a small television that had been wired up to the camera filming the stage so other acts could see what was going on while they were waiting. None of this was being broadcasted live on any Australian networks, but there were a few photographers out there doing their thing, documenting the gig in stills.

The evening soon started to darken and the five of them prepared to head towards the back of the stage. They were all starting to feel the nerves. Outside gigs like this weren’t what they were used to and it had been so long since they had played to this crowd; they just hoped that everything run as smoothly as it had done in the sound check earlier that day. The last thing they needed was for something to mess up their set.

“Right let’s do this!” Robbie said as the five of them were ushered towards the stage as the last band started to make their way off.

Mark couldn’t help but smile at him in a mixture of pure love and happiness. He then turned to smile at Gary, Howard and Jason standing near him. They all smiled back and then their name was called the five of them ran up the stairs that took them to the stage. The crowd erupted as they all come up on to the stage. The lights blinded them all for a few seconds but they were soon able to see the sea of people that were gathered below them. They waved as the first bars of their first song were heard of the screams of fans.

…

They had soon reached the half way point in their set and everything was going brilliantly. The crowd loved everything they were doing – the songs, the jokes they tried (yes…tried) to tell and the conversations they had with each other in between songs.

“We’ve reached the halfway point, can you believe it?” Gary said to the crowd after the last song came to an end.

“I can, I’m knackered.” Mark joked laughing towards Gary.

“’S what happens when you start getting old.” Robbie teased into his mic so the crowd could hear, earning himself a slap from his partner and one of his ‘I’m going to try and look menacing, but I know it’s not working’ faces before bursting into a grin.

The next song started soon after and with everyone still thoroughly enjoying themselves, it seemed like such a perfect evening.

So perfect in fact that no one noticed the van full of spare stage equipment at the back of the stage, rolling slowly backwards towards the poles keeping the stage in position. Someone had left the handbrake off and the van had been parked on a slight slope…

If you were to watch it, you would think that everything was happening in slow motion.

The van continued to move backwards; the slope becoming steeper and steeper; the van moving faster and faster. And still no one noticed.

Apart from the driver.

But by then it was too late to stop the inevitable.

The driver sprinted from where he stood, doing his upmost to try and reach the van, put the handbrake on and stop the vehicle from moving any further…

But he was too late.

The van hit the poles with some force; the sheer weight and speed of the van enough to send a ripple through the metal staging, causing some of the poles to become dislodged. There wasn’t enough time to get everyone to safety and even if there had been…

The first poles collapsed just then; the driver running out of the way. Now people were starting to notice the crisis. There were screams, cries for help. The band had stopped playing, all music having been cut out. The only sounds that could be heard were the sounds of screams from the crowd and the people on the stage. No one could do anything other than run.


End file.
